Preventing infant from catching a cold

[Flowermoon90]

Hi all,

I have a 3 month old DD, and just started going back to work. I am a lecturer, so I am usually in crowded spaces, and I am already coming down with a cold or possibly the flu.

What can I do fo prevent my daughter from getting sick? My whole body aches, so I cannot even pick her up. My DH has to go to work in the afternoon and I do not know what to do.

It’s good for babies to be exposed to cold viruses in terms of building a healthy immune system.

Obviously not much fun for you if you’re feeling ill and parenting but sometimes it’s not possible or advisable to shield your baby from every virus.

Washing hands regularly and coughing into a tissue are pretty much the basic precautions you can take.

When my eldest started pre school he brought home around 6 colds a year and passed them onto his younger sibling. Every exposure to a cold virus builds future immunity to that particular virus.

Nothing tbh, by the time you've come down with it, she'll probably have been exposed too. Inconvenient but overall good for her immune system.

If you're too sick to look after her, dh will have to take time off.

I’d advise you to get a flu jab as early in the season as you can.

And really I'm afraid taking time off is something you learn to juggle. When they're at nursery and school stomach bugs come around quite often, there are four in my family and if we get a bug one after the other, it can take a month to get through. Having it all at the same time brings it's own fun!

Not much you can do unfortunatly. Once they start some kind of childcare and mix with other children it feels like an endless cycle of getting one thing after another! Are you still breastfeeding? That can help pass some immunity onto your DD

Realistically there is nothing you do to prevent her catching your colds. General hygiene isn't really going to prevent it within a house when it's something like a cold. If you were to catch a d&v bug that would be different and as long as you were very thorough and careful with cleaning (bleaching bathroom, extra hand washing etc) you should be able to avoid spreading that.

You could try to prevent yourself getting sick, as a PP said, a flu jab might be a good idea.

But if you're using a nursery for childcare, that will probably be the place she picks things up the most anyway. That's what happened with both of mine.

This is a very mean and unhelpful thing to say to a new parent.

OP your child will get many colds, whether you go to work or not. You'll all get through it, hang in there.

You can’t. Germs are good for their immune system anyway.

What an unhelpful and mean post.

Out of interest, would a father who worked in a similar environment while having a newborn at home also not be putting the baby's well-being first by potentially bringing illnesses home?

What utter bollocks. I'm sure OP would love to take more time off with a newborn but perhaps putting food on the table, paying for heating etc is prioritising "wellbeing" too.
OP, try to rest if you're poorly, but as others have said it's pretty inevitable that DC will catch every bug going for a good few years. 💐

Knowing this is a new mum who obviously cares for and loves her newborn and is back at work when only 3 months postpartum you should've not written such a mean spirited and utterly pointless post. You're not putting anyone's well-being here first at all.

The only things you can reasonably do are:

• Have as little close contact as you can reasonably manageable. So obviously I'm not saying don't cuddle them or anything ridiculous however if/when your DH or another relative is around, I'd get them to do as much of the close contact caring as possible. Not least so you can have a rest and recover yourself!
• Normal good hygiene, so wash hands frequently, cough and sneeze into tissues wherever possible and immediately dispose of them, wash hands before making up a bottle if bottle fed, don't share towels, ideally don't share bedding. Appreciate most of that is normal hygiene which you will be doing anyway and you may have to bed share depending on your usual arrangements.
• Breastfeeding will help transfer antibodies so continue this if you already do it.

After telling the OP how she was doing things wrong and sticking a knife in for no reason, it appears you missed your second paragraph detailing what steps you would take in her current situation, tips and general helpful information as per her request.

Without it your post is somewhat pointless? I can only assume a troll🚨🚨🚨

Except for the usual bin used tissues and good hand hygeine if you are in sole charge of the baby you will need to care for her so they chances of her catching it are high. I wouldn't worry though as she might have milder symptoms than you (my kids don't get achy or particularly high fevers with covid or flu, with covid they were asymptomatic even the baby). She will be fine; she might need help clearing her nose and paracetamol if she has fever.

Thank you everyone for your replies.

Fortunately, it was a mild case, and my DD is fine. :)